Talk London’s 2021 year overview – thank you!

2021 was another tough year. As London started to open up and recover from the pandemic, its impact remained very visible on our communities, our businesses, our city and our personal lives. Thanks to the roll-out of the vaccines and the incredible work of our NHS and key workers, 2022 is looking more hopeful - but we have to stay vigilant this winter. 

To help City Hall’s policy teams, local councils and other partner organisations better understand what was on Londoners’ minds, a lot of our surveys and discussions on Talk London focused on recovery from the pandemic: making London greener, fairer and safer than ever before.  

A big thank you to all of you who got involved and shared your views with us. You really made a difference to the work of City Hall’s policy teams. 

Here’s a snapshot of the last year: 
 

At the start of the year, we launched the ‘Reimagine your local area' campaign. We asked for your best ideas to improve your neighbourhood and make it better for everyone.  

You shared 169 ideas in a few weeks. It was clear that most of you would like to see more green spaces, and better and more facilities such as public toilets and community centres.  

We’ve put all your ideas on a map and have also shared them with councils and community organisations, so that they can see first-hand the changes you would like to happen in your areas. Take a look at your ideas on a map. 

In July, the Mayor announced £4m of funding to support 35 projects to revitalise high streets. In December, a further £2m was announced for 15 of these projects. You can read case studies of three of the high streets projects that got funding.   

The Mayor also recently confirmed that Somers Town in Camden and Notting Dale in Kensington and Chelsea will become Future Neighbourhoods, tackling the climate emergency and air pollution with funding from his Green New Deal fund. The latest update from the Green New Deal mission team shares more.

London’s communities and community spirit are central to our city’s recovery.   

In October, City Hall published a Community Strength Index. It includes a definition of what makes a strong community and a set of factors that contribute to this. 

The index was shaped by communities and civil society organisations, through workshops and discussions here on Talk London, as well as with a group of experts. You can see the online discussion about what makes a strong community.

You can read more about this as well as the Festival of Ideas that was held over the summer on the team’s blog. 

London’s public transport network is key to keeping our city moving but the pandemic has made many of us apprehensive about travelling by train, bus or Tube around the city. To help address the issue, the Mayor called on tech start-ups to come up with a COVID-safe travel solution as part of the Mayor’s Resilience Fund.  

Close to a thousand of you took part in the survey in June. Your feedback helped the winner of this transport challenge further develop their travel app. It combines Transport for London’s travel and crowding data so that you can make informed decisions before and while you travel. 

In November, about 50 of you even got the chance to test the new app before it's rolled out in the near future. We will keep you posted.
 

In July, we hosted our first discussion together with London Fire Brigade on how the brigade could improve its services to better serve London’s communities. We followed this up with a consultation in September on London Fire Brigade’s Community Risk Management Plan, where you had your say on the priorities and the plan in more detail.  

We’ll share an update on the consultation soon. The brigade’s final plan is due to be published in April 2022. 

If you haven’t had the chance to have your say on the draft Police and Crime Plan, there's still time. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime is hosting its latest consultation on Talk London and over 700 members have already completed the survey. Your views on crime and justice are invaluable and will help shape the plan for the next four years. 

Thanks again to everyone who took part, read and shared our emails or joined us in the last year. We’re looking forward to the new year and will keep you posted on new opportunities to have your say. 

All the very best, 
The Talk London team